It's a bug
by sasyst
Summary: Dota fanfiction: Something is seriously wrong in this war. Somehow some of the heroes, who normally are female, are switched into male bodies and it leaves them confused and stumbling through the fights. It gets even weirder when the first female hero dies... (This story is different from the others I have written so far.)
1. Prolog

Dota

It's a Bug

All Random

by Aditu

The town had two circles. An inner one, which was the safe zone, and an outer one. Both were surrounded by walls. In the outer circle was the heart of the town that held the town with all its buildings alive. It was guarded with two towers. Around the heart were several houses and barracks, all on higher ground than the area outside the town. The inner circle was only used by merchants and as regeneration point for the top soldiers, the heroes. The merchants sold mostly weapons and armour suited for everyone, who would fight for their home. And fighting they did.

They were caught in an eternal war with their neighbour town and had to defend themselves endlessly. So everyone, male or female, was trained to fight and then sent into battle. It was the only thing they could do, otherwise they would have nothing left. If the heart was destroyed, all buildings of the town would fall apart.

The main goal was to keep the heart of their town safe. And the second one was to attack the enemy, maybe even to destroy the heart of their adversary's town. But it was not easy. They had skilled fighters as well and it was an endless struggle, who would become victor of this war. You could not tell, who would win, because the two towns with their soldiers and heroes were equally strong. The balance of power always shifted a little. Depending on which hero was on the field and what items the heroes had been able to buy, the balance could shift with every fight. The heroes were hired from outside to support a town and its soldiers. Both towns were able to hire five heroes, whom they paid and who were resurrected inside of the safe zone with a delay, if they died in one of the fights.

At the present, both towns had still all their towers, in and around the high ground of the heart. There were three ways between the two towns and on each way were two towers of each fraction. And one more at the three entrances to the towns. If you wanted to destroy the heart you had to get the three towers and one way down and then the two in front of the heart. Five towers minimum. That was not easy to do, because they had some kind of self-defence system, which would start firing, as soon as an enemy soldier would get into range. Those shots hurt and could easily kill someone, if he or she wasn't strong enough.

Most times, two or three heroes would try to destroy a tower with some soldiers together, to divide the fire power between them all. That way everybody would get injured, but nobody would die. The problem here was, the enemy had soldiers as well, and heroes as strong. They had to kill them first, preferably not under the tower, but outside of its shooting range. Then they could destroy the building.

Well, it was not as easy as it sounded, obviously, since both towns still had all their towers.


	2. Chapter 1

Only three heroes were left in the inner circle. Lucifer, the Doom, was one of them. He was just buying the last item he needed before he turned around to leave the circle to head into the woods. He hesitated. Something was strange with the two remaining heroes.

Both were redheaded human men and something was not right with them. The first held a bow in one hand. He was wearing a tight green shirt with a loose cape and even tighter pants. He was frowning while he tugged at his pants, clearly annoyed with the tightness of them. He pushed his hand in them, obviously adjusting his member while he grimaced. Strange enough. When he joined a town war, couldn't he wear clothes that didn't make him uncomfortable?

But the second guy was even stranger. He was wearing a red and orange tank top and a long skirt. That was okay, there were many men who wore some kind of skirt. What made the Doom frown, was the fact that the man was jumping up and down while somehow absorbed in thought. And he didn't seem to want to stop the jumping. Was he mentally retarded?

The Doom sighed because that could become a really bad war with those two on his side. With another glance in their direction, the man in green still trying to get himself and his pants in a comfortable position and the man in red still jumping up and down like a retard, Lucifer left the inner circle. He would just go into the woods and kill all the beasts he could find there and hope those two would come to their senses. When he had some experience and a few items from the gold the killing of the beasts earned him, he would leave the cover of the trees and help his allies to kill some of the enemy heroes.

He often used this tactic in the town wars, getting gold and experience from killing the creatures in the woods, before going to the roads to join the actual fighting. It worked well, as long as his allies were at least halfway capable. Thinking of those two allies he sighed again and it almost sounded like resignation.

And so the war began.


	3. Chapter 2

Yurnero, the Juggernaut almost laughed out loud. The redheaded man against him on the road had been about half a minute too late, the soldiers already having crashed with his allied soldiers. And then he seemed somehow not to be able to control his body. It was so unbelievably funny to watch. He would grab at his crotch repeatedly, stumble without cause and when he drew his bow his aim was inexplicably off focus.

As soon as Rylai, the Crystal Maiden, joined him, he started an offensive against his enemy hero. He didn't care if the one he was fighting against was retarded, he killed them all. If it made the killing easier, it would be even better. Rylai ran forward but though the man behaved funny, he wasn't stupid. He glanced at them with narrowed eyes as he retreated a few feet.

And whatever problems he had with his coordination, he was getting better by the minute. His precision improved and he even landed a few hits against Yurnero that actually hurt. When he had to take some steps back to regenerate a little health because he had been hit by several arrows in a row and he scowled at the man in the tight fitting, green clothes, the bastard grinned at him.

Because the Crystal Maiden was with him on a road it was still pretty easy. The Queen of Ice had some practical abilities with which she could cocoon an enemy in ice, freezing him into place. The only problem was that the man against them had an ability to run extremely fast and evade all hits aimed at him. After he had escaped out of the freezing not as injured as the Juggernaut would have liked, again, he blew out a frustrated breath before scowling at his opponent over the heads of the fighting soldiers.

He was a good looking human. His red hair was long and bound back into a ponytail. His green clothes, shirt and pants, were so tight they showed every single muscle on the man's body. He could even see them move underneath the cloth. The flex of the muscles in his arms and shoulders when he drew his bow and released the arrow. The tensing of his legs and the firmness of his backside when he ran. And when he hit Yurnero a few times in close succession he flashed his cocky grin at him again. _Well,_ the Juggernaut thought, _he will see what it gains him when I have some more experience and better items. I will crush the bastard._

Rylai kept freezing the archer as often as possible simply because it kept him at a good distance while Yurnero concentrated on killing as many enemy soldiers as possible. They were near the enemy tower almost all the time and were even able to begin the destruction of the building.

The redheaded man stayed in the shooting range of the tower because it gave him some protection. He was well aware that his running skill couldn't save him from everything. Whatever problems he had had with himself at the beginning of the war, he had adjusted, no stumbling anymore and no wrong aim.

Now he was standing near a few trees, the green of his clothes blurring a little with the colour of the leaves behind him. He stared at the Juggernaut, his eyes taking every move in he made. Suddenly he frowned, then he bared his teeth before he grabbed at his crotch like he had done at the beginning of the war.

Yurnero automatically followed the movement of his hand and blinked in surprise. Then he grinned, which was not visible under the mask he wore. He stopped to attack the enemy soldiers when the enemy hero adjusted himself, clearly uncomfortable in his clothes now. He chuckled because this hero was hilarious. He was getting a hard on in the middle of the war! Didn't he have any control over his body?

"What on earth is wrong with this guy?" The Crystal Maiden was standing next to him, a puzzled expression on her face as she watched the enemy hero, too.

He snorted. "I don't know, but it is entertaining as hell."


	4. Chapter 3

The Doom was just killing some creatures in the woods unhurriedly when the man in red ran past him. "Come, I want to gank at the bottom road."

Lucifer delivered the last hit to the beast in front of him then slowly followed the man. He watched him, but he seemed to have gotten normal. He didn't want to follow some retard into a team fight. That seldom ended well. But the man had stopped jumping and he seemed rather confident.

He had some fireballs burning in his upturned palms, clearly ready for battle. The Doom would just stay a few steps behind him to see how it went before joining. No need in getting into the middle of a lost fight.

They neared the road and he could hear sounds of fighting. The fire mage approached from the side of the enemy, to get the hero from the back. As soon as he stepped on the road, the Doom saw that there was only one enemy hero. And they were four. That should be easy enough and so he charged.

The fight was a blur of colours and abilities, pale blue, white, red, orange, yellow, stun, run, stomp, bash, tiny beetles scuttling around. But against four, the enemy hero, a centaur, had no chance.

Suddenly there was a sound behind Lucifer. He turned but it was already too late. Some demon had appeared, probably the enemy hero, who had been on the middle road against the fire man. He was strong and he had the element of surprise on his side as he attacked the man dressed in red. The Doom was way to slow as he moved forward, trying to save one of his allies. Hellfire erupted, engulfing the mage in its flames. Nothing was left as the fire died down, the demon glancing at the Doom before he turned around and vanished under the trees of the woods.

Well, the fight was over and he couldn't do anything more. So Lucifer resumed his farming in the forest like before.

The next time he was disturbed was when he saw the demon, the enemy hero from earlier, on his way to the bottom road. Knowing that he was out to get another hero kill, Lucifer followed at a good distance. The demon seemed not to have seen him, which could be the case since he had been in the shadows of the trees when he had passed by. The demon stopped and so did the Doom, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack.

Suddenly another hero appeared next to him. Lucky for him, it was an ally, the man in red. The Doom only glanced at him briefly but then he stopped, turning his head around to be able to look at the man fully. Only, it wasn't a male, it was a female. She was wearing the same clothes as the man had been wearing, had almost the same hairstyle, the hair was just a bit longer, and she had the same markings on her face. And just like the male she had fire balls flickering over her palms.

What the hell was going on here? Did he have two identical heroes in his team while one was male and one female?

The woman turned towards him, her face expressionless. "It has to be some error in the resurrection process. It switched me back to female after I died."

The Doom blinked at her, processing what she had just said. Now that was strange. She was the same fire mage from before, who had been male? Would he become female now when he died? Hell, he hoped not, because that thought was kind of scary. He was still staring at the fire mage, when she charged forward, the fight obviously already taking place.

He joined but kept looking at the woman. Her movements were definitely more fluent now, everything looked more natural. No wonder she had behaved strangely at the beginning of the war, she had probably just been transformed into a male body.


	5. Chapter 4

The archer had disappeared from the road. He had probably gone to one of the other roads simply because he knew how dangerous it was for him to stay alone against the Crystal Maiden and the Juggernaut.

Yurnero liked it. He could fully concentrate on killing the enemy soldiers. It was an easy life. In his opinion it could stay like that. And when he had been able to buy some good items no one would be able to stop him.

But then, their opponents were not stupid. He and Rylai were just underneath the enemy tower, confidently attacking the building to get it down, when all four enemy heroes appeared behind them. They had to have ganked up to be able to kill him and the Maiden. But though they were absolutely outnumbered, the Juggernaut would make sure it would be a hard fight for their opponents nonetheless. He would face his fate head-on without fear and hesitation. They had no chance to escape so he would fight, determined to kill at least one of them before going down. He jumped forward, his sword raised over his head, attacking the first enemy hero he could reach, a female fire mage with red clothes and red hair.

The Crystal Maiden helped with her freezing and one of their allies, the Enchantress, appeared from out of their woods where she had been killing the beasts underneath the trees, as if she had sensed the incoming fight. In addition, the Shadow Fiend ran up from the middle road. He wouldn't be fast enough, though, to join the fight but maybe he could pick the injured enemies out from behind. And so his first team fight in this town war began. He concentrated only on himself and his blade, knowing that Rylai would disable the enemy heroes if she could and cast ice all around them. He knew that he could depend on her, had fought several wars with her as his support now.

The Juggernaut was able to deal a lot of damage, even killing the fire mage, before the archer man hit him with an arrow right in the chest. He stumbled backwards before hitting the ground hard. He saw how the Enchantress was killed seconds after him and Rylai tried to escape into the woods. He didn't know if she would be able to make it, even with the Shadow Fiend now burning first one, then another enemy hero in his demon fire.

The Doom resurrected in the safe zone. This damn demon had to be killed first in the next team fight. He had again sneaked up on them and had attacked from their backs. He was definitely a dangerous opponent.

The fire mage appeared in front of him, resurrected as well. Lucifer frowned. It was a male again. The Doom took quick inventory of himself but he hadn't changed, was still as male as ever.

The mage looked down his body. Then he wiggled his hips before jumping up and down again, like he had done at the beginning of the war. Did the change to the male body come together with a loss of brain?

The man looked at the Doom then and stopped jumping. He shrugged. "Strange to have something dangling between your legs. Even stranger how the thing moves when I move."

The Doom blinked at him. For a second he wanted to say something but then he just left the safe zone to get back into the woods again for a while. This was way too freaky for his liking. Not necessarily the changing from male to female and back again after the death of the mage but her/his reaction to it. He looked confident and absolutely unfazed but that only made his behaviour seem so completely out of place. Jumping up and down for a minute with a neutral expression, as if it was the most normal thing on earth, was freaky.

At least the fire mage wasn't bad in the fights and neither Lucifer's death nor his own death had been due to bad fighting.


	6. Chapter 5

The Juggernaut ran through the woods to the top road. When he arrived at first tower he saw something that made him stop. He had thought that whatever problem the enemy archer had had at the beginning of the war had been something personal. But it seemed that is wasn't. Something was wrong in this war and it wasn't limited to one team.

The Crystal Maiden was already there, had probably ported back to the tower with a Scroll of Town Portal. But she was no Maiden, she was a man!

She, no _he_ , was frowning, the tight and short blue dress with the leggings and cape looking extremely funny on a male. His movements made the cloth tighten on his body, highlighting his defined muscles, but making him look as if he was wearing a costume rather than normal clothes.

When the man saw Yurnero, he grinned and waved. "Hey, I found out why the enemy archer had problems with his body. I even know now who he is, I have fought against him, or better her, before."

The Juggernaut neared, his gaze running up and down Rylai's body, not really comprehending what was happening. "You changed into a male? How can you be so undisturbed by it?" Because _he_ definitely was disturbed. But the Crystal Maiden only laughed. "I think it is funny, those town wars get way too boring with time and this is finally something new. Of course it is strange but as long as I don't stay like that forever I can live with it for the moment."

He looked up and down Rylai's body again. "Well, you do look good as a male." Before he had said the complete sentence, he frowned. What a stupid thing to say. He was really confused by this whole situation. But Rylai only laughed. "Oh Yurnero, you know that I only dig women. But thank you for the compliment." He put his hands on his hips and turned around. "Don't I look fat in the dress?"

Now the Juggernaut had to laugh. "It looks strange on a male but you definitely don't look fat."

"Great. I look strange. Exactly what I was aiming for..." But his voice still held laughter. "Come, we have to win a war so I can get back into my normal female body."

When they had fought some of the enemy soldiers, the archer appeared on the road again.

He stayed far enough back so they were not able to kill him. Cautious. The Juggernaut watched Rylai from the corner of his eyes but she/he didn't seem to struggle as much as the archer had. He had adapted rather fast to being in a male body.

The archer was clearly not satisfied with how the fight was going on the road. He frowned at Yurnero and Rylai a few times, annoyed with how far the freezing of the Crystal Maiden reached and with how much damage the Juggernaut dealt with a few precise hits. He vanished behind the tower and didn't come back.

Yurnero was delighted. That had been too easy on this road. They destroyed the tower and still the archer didn't come back.

"We have to go to another road. They probably need help, with no enemy hero on this road they will outnumber our allies on one of the other roads." Rylai was right. And so they both bought a Scroll of Town Portal and used it to teleport to first tower on the bottom road. Or, that was what they wanted to do.

They appeared at second tower. Which meant that first tower was destroyed.

Right behind the tower one of their allies, the Centaur Warrunner, was standing, heavily injured, and pissed as hell.

"Those bitches destroyed my tower." The Centaur growled, scowling at the road in front of him, into the direction where the tower had been standing. "There are four of them."


	7. Chapter 6

After destroying the enemy tower, the Doom wanted to head back. It had been extremely successful, the four of them going against the building while the lone enemy hero, a centaur with a huge battle axe, had zero chance of stopping them or even slowing them down.

But the redheaded archer, who had joined them a few minutes ago, wanted to keep pushing as long as possible. His confidence convinced them to stay and so they went on to destroy the next tower of the enemy, too.

Lucifer was a little weary about the demon appearing at their backs again. So when he saw movement at the edge of the forest, he turned around, ready to engage the enemy hero. But it only was the remaining ally from his team, the fire mage, who stepped onto the road with fire burning in his open palms.

And just like that, without any warning, the fight began. Two of the enemy heroes initiated, a third stepped out of the shadows of some trees, the demon did come from their backs again and the fifth, an ice mage (hadn't he been female in the fight before?), stayed back while casting as much ice on them as he could.

It was complete chaos but Lucifer knew what to do: doom the ice mage, activate his healing ability and then join the fight with his enchanted sword, ready to bash whomever it would hit first. He went for the demon this time, ignoring the fight at his back. He could only hope that his allies knew what to do and how to win a fight. The demon was attacking the fire mage, who took a few steps back, more into the middle of the fight but behind the Doom.

The Doom raised his sword for the first strike but suddenly the demon in front of him looked at something behind Lucifer's shoulder and stopped dead in his tracks. He stared, the enemy in front of him seemingly forgotten.

He wasn't stupid and he would have _never_ turned around to follow the demon's line of sight but a squeal from the same direction made him look before he could think about the act. And just like the demon in front of him, he froze, staring at the scene.

It was per se absolutely normal: the fire mage had built Eul's Scepter of Divinity and had used it on himself to evade some attack. The sceptre spun him around in the air, several feet over the ground, out of reach of all attacks. What wasn't normal, though, was that the fire mage didn't wear anything underneath his skirt, no pants, nothing. The spinning made his long red skirt fly and since every other hero stood on the ground, they all had an extremely good view up said skirt: onto the dick of the fire mage and his completely bare white arse. And the mage squealed and grinned while his member flew as he spun around in the air.

Lucifer groaned. This mage was so absolutely hilarious. Lucky for him he had already seen him do strange things and so he recovered first from the sight the man posed. He turned back while the demon was still staring and decapitated him with one hit of his giant blade, not caring that he used the creature's non-attention towards the fight for his own benefit. A split second before the sword connected, the demon realized his mistake, but it was already too late. One enemy hero down, the Doom turned around to where the fire mage had landed and the heroes had resumed the fight. The enemy heroes saw that this fight was a lost one and retreated. They had been able to deal a lot of damage, though, and one of their allies, the Ancient Apparition, had died. The Doom was satisfied with the outcome, it could have been worse. At least this time the demon hadn't been able to kill them all from behind.

"Bro, why the hell don't you wear underwear?" The archer turned and looked at the fire mage, shaking his head, his tone incredulous.

The mage shrugged, completely unconcerned. "It is too constricting. I don't like it."

"Well, it definitely was a sight I won't _ever_ forget." Still shaking his head, the archer whirled around towards the enemy tower in front of them and fired the last shot that made the building crumple.

The Doom thought the same as he left his allies and went into the woods again to kill some more of the creatures there. It would take forever to get the image of the fire mage, high in the air, spinning, his dick flying, out of his head.

Then a thought struck him: if the mage didn't wear underwear when he was a male, he would obviously didn't wear any as a female, too.

A grin spread over Lucifer's face. The man would still have the Eul's Scepter when he died and was resurrected as female. And he would have a look up the mage's skirt when he was a female again. That image would definitely replace the one that was in his head right now.


	8. Chapter 7

"Aiushtha!" The deep voice of the Centaur echoed through the trees.

Yurnero frowned underneath his mask. They hadn't exactly lost the team fight but they hadn't won it, either. And to be true, he had been distracted by the strange scene with the fire mage. The worst of it had been that he knew the mage and he knew that it was a female normally. He was the sister of Rylai and they had talked several times. To see him/her like that had definitely thrown him off his guard. To see the sister of one of his closest friends as a man, flying through the air so everyone could see his man parts was gross.

"Aiushtha!"

The Juggernaut passed the Enchantress then. He was normally a female, too, but had been turned into a male after his death in the precious fight. And in contrast to the Crystal Maiden, this change was more than the man could handle. He was half deer, half human and his body must have gone through some more changes than that of the Maiden. And since his weapon was a spear, which he threw, he needed a good balance of weapon and body. And he definitely hadn't adapted that fast.

The Enchantress sighed. "What?"

"Can you please put your cock away? It's freaking me out enough that you have one, so at least tuck it away so I don't have to see it dangling between your legs!" The Centaur Warrunner was coming towards the Enchantress, a deep scowl in place.

Another sigh. "You say that as if it's easy, but I don't know how to do that. Believe me, I've tried. This male body is driving me crazy."

Before he could stop himself, Yurnero looked at the Enchantress. And saw her deer cock fully exposed hanging there. Gods, this war was getting stranger by the minute. Not that he minded seeing some nice cock, but seeing that of a deer was disturbing, as was seeing one of a man with a skirt who was spinning in the air.

With a groan he changed directions and left the two to their discussion.

He turned around a corner and collided with someone. This someone had less body mass than him and fell backwards, flat on his arse. "Damn." Yurnero muttered, rubbing at his head, were something hard had hit him during the collision. Then he froze, remembering that he was in a town war and that he had to be ready to fight at all times.

Drawing his sword, he looked at whomever he had encountered. The enemy archer with the red hair and green clothes looked up at him with wide eyes. "Oh shit." He scrambled backwards, trying to get up while never letting the Juggernaut out of his sight. "Um, hi gorgeous. I, um … I was just on my way back, didn't want to bother you." He flashed a nervous grin and took a few steps back, now finally on his feet again.

The Juggernaut watched. He wasn't so sure why he didn't attack immediately but this town war was strange enough, he could add some strangeness himself by not killing the archer in front of him. To tell the truth, he felt still completely off balance by this whole gender swap that was taking place.

The archer in front of him had stopped, definitely confused by him not attacking. "Well, thanks I guess. I owe you one." He smiled and waved at him while he turned around. "Glad I didn't have to mar your perfect body!" In a flurry of movement he was gone.

Taking a deep breath, Yurnero turned away from where he was standing and headed in another direction, still away from the Centaur and the Enchantress, but away from the direction the archer had taken, too. He crossed the middle road but he wanted to take a time out and he would do so by going into the woods and killing some of the creatures there. In the next team fight he would be prepared for strange things to happen. He wouldn't be distracted that easily again.

The fire mage didn't die in the next fight. Or the one after that. Lucifer was disappointed. Instead of getting a look up the skirt of a hot female he had had to look away because the mage had so much fun shaking his dick that he did it all the time! Every opportunity he got he jumped up and down or spun around in the air with his Eul's Scepter.

Meanwhile the enemy team had its own problems with this whole male-female swapping. They had a half deer creature, who was completely useless as soon as he was male. At least the fire mage knew when to fight and was good at it.


	9. Chapter 8

The Enchantress missed another throw with one of his spears and the Juggernaut just wanted to hit him. Hard. He was so _useless_. He hoped the damn deer man would die again so he would be at least halfway helpful in the next fight as a female. Yurnero would even do the killing if he could do it. But since they were allies, he could only hope that one of their enemies was merciful enough to put him out of his misery. At least the deer man had somehow found out how to tuck his deer cock away so it wasn't out there all the time for everyone to see.

Rylai looked as if he had lots of fun, though. He was laughing at the Enchantress, seemingly not caring that the man was useless and incompetent. But he just was like that, always cheerful, no matter what. It was one of the reasons the Juggernaut liked him/her. She was something truly special.

The Centaur Warrunner rolled his eyes at the Enchantress, he was definitely irritated by him, to say the least. But Yurnero had heard they were in a relationship and he could just imagine how strange that had to be, to be with a woman who turned into a man suddenly. Or the other way round. If you didn't happen to like both, male and female, you really had a problem, then.

At the next missed throw, the Centaur stomped his front hooves onto the ground, hard enough to create a dust cloud. "Aiushtha, could you please concentrate on what you are doing?"

The deer man whipped around, and glared at the Centaur. "I hope you get turned into a female. I'd love to see how you will fare, then. Until then, shut up and let me try to get this all working." With that he bounced away into the forest.

The Centaur sighed and then followed. The Juggernaut decided to take a few minutes away from them all and go to a place where some bigger creatures were normally standing which he could kill. They had to come together all five, though, to be able to destroy a few towers of the enemy and to kill the enemy heroes. They needed to go as a team because the enemy was strong and they went together, too. So he would gather them all after he had killed those creatures (it were three black dragons, hovering a little over the ground, just in reach of his sword).

Suddenly he saw movement from the corner of his eyes and without a seconds thought he turned to run away. He was no coward but he was sure that there were more than one enemy hero and his allies were too far away to help him.

Exactly at the place he had been standing only a second before a column of flames shot into the sky, followed by a wave of fire. The wave hit him, burning his skin a little, but the column had missed completely. Yurnero didn't look back as he ran but he heard someone right behind him. Whoever it was, was faster and gaining ground.

The archer men ran next to him in the next moment, smiling as the wind whipped around him, blowing his hair from his face and making his cape flutter behind him. He looked beautiful, almost too beautiful for a man, but only almost. The Juggernaut appreciated when they looked good. The man slowed his steps until he was running as fast as Yurnero. "Hey masked one. I owe you one life. See my debt payed with letting you get away now."

The Juggernaut frowned at those words. "You _let_ me get away? I could kill you and still get away from the others. And even if not it would be one kill for one kill, and only as long as I'm not able to get another one of your allies."

The archer had the nerve to laugh at that. Yurnero's frown deepened. Was he laughing about him? "No, you wouldn't be able to kill me. And you'd never be able to get away. Maybe you could get one of the others, but not me."

"Full of yourself, aren't you?"

"I just know what I can and what I can't do. See, I can stun you now and I can survive everything you can dish out. What I can't do is kill you alone but since my stun would disable you long enough for my allies to catch up with us, that isn't really a problem. Now, do you accept this as paying my debt or do I have to show you how well we are able to kill you?"

Just as the Juggernaut wanted to accept, Rylai stepped out of the trees in front of them and he could feel the presence of the Shadow Fiend as he approached invisible.

The archer stopped abruptly and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Crystal Maiden. He was barely out of reach of the freezing and he knew it. "Well played." He said and ran back into the forest they had just emerged from before anyone could react. He was extremely fast and gone in a second.

"Yurnero, you okay?"

"Yeah, thanks for the rescue."

Rylai raised her brows. "It didn't seem as if you needed any help. It was more like you were running side by side with a friend instead of an enemy. The archer is rather good looking but you do know that he will become female again? You don't have to go easy on him because you want to shag him."

Luckily the mask the Juggernaut wore hid his blush. And luckily the Shadow Fiend had moved on so he didn't witness this conversation.

"It's not like that." Even in his ears it sounded lame and defensive. Of course he wouldn't mind to hit the sheets with the archer but something like that never got in his way in a town war. Besides, Rylai was right, the archer would get his female body back and Yurnero was only attracted to men so it would end then.

But though it had sounded lame, it wasn't like that. It was just that this whole war was making his head spin. He was so glad about a few minutes of solitude when he didn't have to deal with this craziness. So when he had spared the archer it hadn't been on intent. And just now he had only wanted to get away before the enemy heroes could gank up on him. The archer had run by his side, not the other way round. If he had attacked him (not to speak of the fact that he would surely have been able to get away rather unscathed, like he had said he could) his opponents would have had enough time to catch up with them.

The Juggernaut had not spared the archer because he was beautiful.

The Crystal Maiden was still looking at him with raised brows and a tiny smirk on his face. So he flipped him off and headed into their town.

"You let him get away!" Lina, currently male, his hands on his hips, glared at the archer. His tone was accusing. The Doom would have said the same thing but he was the slowest in their group and he wouldn't have been able to catch up with the enemy hero anyway. He had too much body mass to carry around.

The archer was completely unfazed by the fire man. "I didn't. I wasn't able to stun him and then there appeared the ice mage and I'm sure the demon was around, too. No use in dying while chasing the man. I decided it wasn't worth it."

"Let us get the other two and then destroy some towers." Lucifer didn't wait for an answer as he headed in the direction he knew the other two of his team were currently fighting.


	10. Chapter 9

Rylai laughed and Yurnero looked at him. It was strange that the laugh sounded so different when the Crystal Maiden was in a male body. It was also strange, how good he looked, even though his clothes were ridiculous for a male. Too tight, too short, too blue and all this pelt...

He found it disconcerting that one of his best friends was suddenly attractive. Not that the Maiden wasn't attractive as a female, he was sure that she was, just not for him.

"We did it!" Rylai slung one arm around Yurnero's shoulders, which was awkward at best because though he was male for the time being, he was still much shorter than the Juggernaut. But he was right. The other three of their team had died (for the Enchantress and the Centaur Warrunner it probably was a blessing) but they had been able to get all five enemy heroes in the fight. They had been able to kill the archer. It was the first time the man had died in this town war and there had definitely been shock on his beautiful face as he realized he wouldn't be able to get away in time.

The Juggernaut was pleased with the outcome of the fight. He hadn't been the one who had dealt the killing blow to the archer man but he had killed three of the others. So they would wait for their allies, gather and start an initiative. Until now they had been way too defensive for Yurnero's liking. And since the Enchantress would be female again they were a team of five against five and not four against six, as he had felt the previous fights had been with the half deer more a hindrance than a help.

They approached through the woods to surprise the enemy heroes with the Shadow Fiend using his invisibility to scout ahead.

Before they could see them, they could hear one of the enemy heroes shouting loud enough to be heard even over the sounds of the fighting from the normal soldiers.

"Hey archer boy! Could you come with us? I'm not asking because I dig your manly, muscled body and love to watch you fight but because we need your arrows!" The fire mage was definitely female again.

The Juggernaut ducked into the shadows of some trees while he waited for his allies to catch up with him. From his position he could see the fire mage and one more enemy hero. The archer was behind them but he was clearly catching up now. Yurnero, even from his position in the shadows and from this distance, could see that the man was pissed. Then he thought that something about him was different than before. And just as the fire woman said: "Man, hurry up, would you?" he realized what it was: the archer was a woman! But of course she was, she had died for the first time and so he had only seen her as male in all the previous fights. But now she had morphed back into the female she usually was.

But no wonder the archer looked pissed because either the fire mage hadn't realized that she was now female and was still addressing her as male or she did it on purpose. Either way, the woman had a right to be pissed and if she could, she would probably have shot the mage in the back.

Yurnero had to say, the archer hadn't changed that much during her transition. The hair was almost the same, the clothes were exactly the same and her figure hadn't changed very much, too. The poor archer had almost no curves as a female, which was surely another reason why she was so pissed at the fire mage calling her 'man' and 'boy'. He would have loved to see the archer's response to the bossy fire mage but in that moment his allies appeared on both of his sides and without a second's pause the Centaur Warrunner jumped in. The others followed, as did the Juggernaut.

Wherever the other two enemy heroes were, they didn't appear fast enough to take part in the fight. The archer was fast enough to get away this time but the other two died.

Rylai was grinning again as the fight was over. "This is really fun today! Whatever bug this is, I would love to have more wars like those. Though I suppose it will get less funny when we know what will happen. We would probably get used to it too soon."

The Doom had wanted to kill some creatures to get some money but then he had heard fighting. When he had appeared where the sound had come from it was already too late and he could only watch as the last enemy hero disappeared into the woods. That was not good. They were starting to lose fights and it seemed the enemy had now begun to hunt them. They had started an offensive.

He knew that they'd have to gather and go as five again and continue as they had done at the beginning of the war. Somehow the enemy team had begun to get better, faster, stronger and they'd have to stick real close together to be able to defeat them and win this war.


	11. Chapter 10

Since they were in the enemy woods now, the Juggernaut went through it and killed all the beasts there while the others already headed back. They would go to another road next.

He literally stumbled over the archer woman as he turned around a big tree. The woman hissed at him, her teeth bared. "Fuck off!" She didn't glance at him again before she simply left him standing there, even turning her back on him. Wow, she really was pissed.

"Got your panties in a twist?" The words were out before he even realized he had spoken and he winced. He almost took a step backwards as the archer whirled around and faced him.

"Something to say there? Maybe how manly my body is right now? And how good-looking a man I am?"

The Juggernaut swallowed. Several answers swirled through his head but they were all the wrong things to say. "Um, didn't want to say nothing like that. Just surprised that you let that arrogant and always dying fire mage get to you so easily."

The archer pursed her lips but then she relaxed a little. "If she'd done it on purpose it wouldn't have mattered. Not the first one to call me 'boy'. But she really thought I was still male."

"If it helps any, I realized immediately. And I was looking from a distance. Out of the shadows. At an enemy hero." He shrugged, not really sure why he: first, talked to her instead of attacking and second, tried to calm her and tried to lighten her mood. "The fire mage is simply too self-absorbed to look at others."

The archer smiled. "Thanks, gorgeous." Then she pursed her lips again. "Since you got away last time because you distracted me long enough with your talking, I think I owe you two, now. I'd say I'll go easy on you at the next big fight, but my team has been rather incompetent in the last one so I probably won't need to go easy on you at all. You'll win anyway, I'd guess." She smiled again. "You can keep it in mind, though. If we meet in the real world it's probably worth something there, too. Or the next town war. Whatever you want. I'm off now, wouldn't want to be caught talking to the enemy." She waved and was gone so fast, only the flutter of her cape was visible for a second or two.


	12. Chapter 11

The Doom was highly frustrated. At the beginning of the damn war he had thought the fire mage was capable enough for them to win this but it seemed the only really good one of his allies was the archer. But since she had turned female after the first death, she seemed to avoid the presence of the fire mage. That wasn't good for their fights, as it was not good that the fire mage died too often. It hadn't mattered so much at the beginning, then she had had some good fights but now it definitely was a problem.

And the other two of his team weren't that useful, either. It seemed they would lose this war. Lucifer was a little glad that it would be over, soon. It had been extremely strange, had been so from the first moment on when he had seen the fire mage jumping up and down in the base and the archer fighting with his clothes. Had gotten only worse with time as the fire mage had switched from male to female on a regular basis. Not even the bad performance of the enemy half deer creature when she was male had been enough.

When he stood on the middle road, deciding what to do and how to gather his allies to go as a team (because he wouldn't give up that easily, would at least try to win), the probably strangest thing in this war happened. It was the moment where the Doom decided that he couldn't take any more of that and that he only wanted to get this war to an end, to _any_ end, so he could get away from it all.

The fire man came out of the woods, slowly, and he definitely had a hard one, his skirt obviously tented at places it should be flat. The man looked down his body as he walked and then he poked at his erection with a finger. He did it again, staring at this body part with concentration. He began to squeeze and prod as if it had offended her somehow.

Lucifer stared at the man, his mouth open in shock. "What the hell are you doing?"

The mage looked up. And shrugged. "I want to know what it is like for a man to have an erection. Since I am male for the time being I thought I could test it. It does feel strange, though." And he poked at it again.

"Please tell me you don't."

"I don't what? Test all aspects to this part of the male body? Oh, but I do. I suspect I'll never again get this chance." He started to jump, his hard one whipping up and down underneath the skirt. "I would like to try and pee with this and I'm almost sad I can't do that in a town war. I heard it is difficult to pee when being hard. Would definitely be worth a try." He shrugged again, stopping the jumping. "I think it's all extremely fascinating." He poked at the tent in his skirt. "Jumping hurts a little like that."

That was the moment the Doom would have liked nothing more than to surrender this town war and just go home.

Lucky for him the enemy heroes chose this moment to appear, all five together, and kill the mage. He had still been standing with his back to the forest and so intent on the reactions of his body that he hadn't paid attention to his surroundings. Lucifer didn't even try to save him, just turned away and headed back into their town.

When he stood inside of the town, behind third tower, and looked at the five enemy heroes in front of it, the archer stepped next to him. "So the fire mage died again." Her tone was flat, clearly she couldn't care less. "I would've really liked to win this war, but at this point it's only getting on my nerves. Do you know where our other two allies are?"

"No. And I feel like you. Stupid allies. Want to defend a bit or wait until it's over?"

"Normally I'd defend until there is nothing left to fight for but two against five is rather useless." She shook her head. "This was a strange war."

The Juggernaut was little disappointed. It had been too easy in the end. Somehow, after a few lost fights, the enemy heroes had lost all will to win the war. They only destroyed third tower on this one road and then all the buildings behind it. Then they directly went for the heart of the town to end this war.

The archer watched them from a good distance away. But she simply waited. When the fire mage appeared again, resurrected as female, she frowned at her shortly and then ignored her. The mage said something to her but the archer just shook her head.

And so this town war ended. Yurnero took a deep breath when they had won and it was over. Rylai was grinning widely while the Shadow Fiend disappeared almost instantly.

The Centaur Warrunner grabbed the Enchantress and kissed her. Rather passionately. He seemed to be just as glad that this was over. Then they disappeared, too.

"Come, let's get going." The Crystal Maiden laughed. "Man, that was fun!"

Leaving the town war brought them to a place on a meadow. And right beside him, the archer woman appeared. "Hey gorgeous! Congratulation to the win. You were good." She turned towards the Crystal Maiden, who was now female again. "You, too. Stuck to him at the right times." She nodded shortly. "Until next time!"

"Hey, wait! You said you owe me." Raised brows as she looked at him again.

"You are rather quick at collecting."

"Well, I want you to get a drink, or two, with me." Rylai jabbed her elbow into his stomach. "Um, I mean with us, of course."

The archer laughed at that. "You don't need to trade a favour for that! It'll be my pleasure." She held her hand out to him. "I'm Alleria. Nice to meet you."


End file.
